Isabela has quickly become a favourite stop in the Galápagos. The wildlife is everywhere and on every plane: turtles cruising past at eye level while you snorkel, blacktip sharks patrolling the reefs along the bottom, and manta and mobula rays gliding through the middle distance like they have somewhere to be. There was one moment where I counted three turtles, five sharks, and a manta ray in a single field of view, all moving through the same stretch of water as if they had been told to.

The other moment that has stayed with me was a four-foot stingray that lifted off the sand right beneath me, slowly, with no fuss, no warning, and no apparent interest in me one way or the other. It is one of those experiences that you remember the order of for a long time afterwards.

On land it is just as full. The blue-footed boobies along the shoreline are extremely cooperative photographic subjects, and the marine iguanas have made an art form of looking exactly like the lava rock around them. Evenings, I have been ending up at The Pink Iguana for the coco loco, which is excellent, and a sunset that gives every impression of going on indefinitely.

Between the snorkelling, the hikes across lava landscapes, and the relaxed pace of the town, Isabela has felt like the best version of an island stop. Adventure to spare and nothing scheduled, in roughly equal measures.